ANKARA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Central Bank on Wednesday cut its 2019 inflation forecast to 14.6 percent, meanwhile vowing to keep a tight monetary policy until current inflation is improved.

In the first quarterly inflation report this year, the bank lowered its 2019 inflation rate forecast by 0.6 percentage points from the 15.2 percent estimate given in October.

The inflation rate will fluctuate between 11.9 percent and 17.3 percent through the end of 2019, with a 70 percent probability, the report said.

The bank also lowered its inflation forecast to 8.2 percent for 2020, down from 9.3 percent in the previous report, and maintained its medium-term inflation target of five percent in three years.

Turkey's Central Bank Governor Murat Cetinkaya stressed that a tight monetary policy stance will be maintained until the inflation outlook shows significant improvement.

Consumer price inflation spiked to a 15-year high in October 2018 of over 25 percent before falling to 20.3 percent in December, hitting consumers hard as the Turkish lira also weakened.